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India crumpled to their lowest Test total on home soil of 46 all out as New Zealand seized control of the series opener in Bengaluru.
After the opening day was washed out by rain, India immediately regretted their decision to bat first as seamers Matt Henry and William O’Rourke took centre stage, sharing nine wickets.
Henry claimed five for 15 and O’Rourke returned four for 22 to condemn Rohit Sharma’s side to their third lowest five-day total, only just surpassing the 36 they made in Australia in 2020 and 42 in England 50 years ago.
Devon Conway’s quickfire 91 off 105 balls, containing three sixes and 11 fours, lifted the Black Caps to 180 for three and a lead of 134 but the story of the day belonged to India’s dramatic collapse.
Rohit was the first to go, charging at Tim Southee but undone by movement off the pitch and bowled, before O’Rourke claimed the prize wicket of Virat Kohli for a nine-ball duck.
Sarfaraz Khan chipped tamely to mid-off to give Henry his first and while Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant – the only two batters to make double figures – put on 21, India slipped from 31 for three to 34 for seven.
KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin departed for ducks after Jaiswal made 13.
Pant went for a top score of 20 as Henry, who moved to 100 Test wickets, and O’Rourke cleaned up the tail in a remarkable passage of play as India were all out in 31.2 overs.
New Zealand’s openers overhauled India’s paltry total in the 13th over, with Conway taking the attack to the spinners.
Conway might have been stumped on 89 but Pant could not gather and looked in pain after the ball thudded into his knee, with Dhruv Jurel taking on wicketkeeping duties from then on.
It was not a costly miss as Conway fell nine short of a hundred as he missed a reverse sweep off Ashwin and was bowled. New Zealand, though, were firmly in the ascendancy.
